It’s not really a good comparison. Most of the fields you spoke off people can make a decent living off even without reaching the top.

But the people they talk about in the article already made it to the top. And they still can’t make a living.

More public funding would be the only option. But that’s hard to sell, many people don’t think it’s a worthwhile usage of funding. And it’s also very hard to measure the impact this kind of funding actually has. So it’s difficult to argue in favor of it. If the overall living situation of people would be better, I don’t think people would argue against it.

And there are plenty of other fields and industries that receive public funding (directly or indirectly) that deserve it even less.